JERUSALEM – Israel's military announced late Monday that it had launched "a focused and limited" ground campaign against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Involving ground forces, aircraft and artillery units, the operation targeted areas in southern Lebanon, while warplanes bombed Beirut's southern suburb.

Lebanon's health ministry said early on Tuesday that at least 95 people were killed and 172 wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon's southern regions, the eastern Bekaa Valley, and Beirut in the past 24 hours.

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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) offensive targeted Hezbollah positions in villages near the border, from where fighters had been launching rockets at northern Israel, said the military.

"The IDF is operating according to a detailed plan developed by the General Staff and Northern Command, for which the forces have trained and prepared over the past few months," it said.

The campaign was initiated Monday night following approval from the country's Security Cabinet earlier on Monday.

The military said the offensive in the Gaza Strip would also proceed.

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Local residents in the Lebanese border town of Aita al-Shaab reported heavy shelling and the sound of helicopters and drones overhead.

Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah was killed by Israel on Friday, dealing one of the heaviest blows in decades to Hezbollah.

It followed two weeks of intensive air strikes that have eliminated several Hezbollah commanders but also killed about 1,000 civilians and forced one million to flee their homes, according to the Lebanese government.

Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Qassem, in a first public speech on Monday since Nasrallah's death, said that "the resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement”.

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The Israeli attacks on militant targets in Lebanon are part of a conflict stretching from the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the occupied West Bank to groups in Yemen and Iraq.

With inputs from Reuters